|
|
|
|
Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Friday, April 13, 2012
Moline of the day…
Fenway Park is celebrating its 100th birthday today, and Luke Scott was asked about it. Surprisingly, he did not take issue with the circumstances of the park’s birth. But he was cranky about the place all the same, calling it “a dump”:
“As a baseball player, going there to work, it’s a dump. I mean, it’s old. It does have a great feel and nostalgia, but at the end of the day, I’d rather be at a good facility where I can get my work in. A place where I can go hit in the cage. Where I have space and it’s a little more comfortable to come to work. You’re packed in like sardines there. It’s hard to get your work in. … You have to go to their weight room if you want to lift … from a player’s point of view, it’s not a place where you want to go to work.”
Repoz
Posted: April 13, 2012 at 09:25 AM | 71 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
rays,
red sox
|
Bookmarks
You must be logged in to view your Bookmarks.
Hot Topics
Newsblog: [OTP-June] Economic Times: Hope politics, sports don’t get mixed up: Manmohan Singh (2278 - 8:14pm, Jun 19)Last: SteveFNewsblog: LATimes: Microsoft unveils new Xbox One console (234 - 8:10pm, Jun 19)Last: YR Misses Reggie BarsNewsblog: OMNICHATTER for JUNE 19, 2013 (24 - 8:10pm, Jun 19)Last: botemanNewsblog: Perry: Josh Hamilton and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night (49 - 8:09pm, Jun 19)Last: FancyPantsHandle glistening with foreign substanceNewsblog: Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-19-2013 (6 - 8:05pm, Jun 19)Last: Eric J can SABER all he wants toNewsblog: Mercury News: San Jose sues MLB over stalled Oakland A's move (35 - 8:04pm, Jun 19)Last: Walt DavisNewsblog: OT: The Soccer Thread June, 2013 (642 - 7:54pm, Jun 19)Last: Bull PainNewsblog: OT: NBA Finals and June thread (1016 - 7:46pm, Jun 19)Last: robinredNewsblog: Sports on Earth: Super-Royal (27 - 7:45pm, Jun 19)Last: Walt DavisNewsblog: Matt Harvey challenged Jon Rauch to a fight (70 - 7:41pm, Jun 19)Last: ShoeGritNewsblog: Neyer: Computing Manny Machado's shot at the record (44 - 7:38pm, Jun 19)Last: Alex meets the threshold for granular reviewNewsblog: Murphy: Ruben Amaro Jr. doesn't "do" five-year plans, but the Phillies need a good one (32 - 7:31pm, Jun 19)Last: DanNewsblog: Draft signings (136 - 6:50pm, Jun 19)Last: Meatwads stronger now, ready for the houseNewsblog: OT: NHL is finally back thread (1014 - 6:48pm, Jun 19)Last: Meatwads stronger now, ready for the houseNewsblog: Stan "The Fan" Charles: After Biogenesis, Should MLB Players Still Have The Right To Arbitration? (39 - 6:37pm, Jun 19)Last: Jack Carter, calling Beleaguered Castle
|
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. ASmitty Posted: April 13, 2012 at 09:34 AM (#4105472)Luckily I'm not a player!
An entertainment venue can be a great place for customers AND a terrible place for employees at the same time. It's not controversial stuff.
WHAT?! How dare you not support our troops! They need quartering!
On the other hand, I don't like Luke Scott because he's a birther wackjob and now he's talking #### about Fenway. So screw him.
Not In My Backyard!
Also, I have not been to Fenway since the lat 90s. I heard there were improvements, so I am willing to move on the "dump" designation, but I can not move on the "joke" label.
Difficult to do when the piss smell is originating in the pants of the frat guy sitting next to you.
There weren't improvements, they basically completely renovated the stadium. They took 40 years off the place, easily. It's clean, it's a LOT more comfortable than it used to be, yet still retains most of its charm (a little bit did get scraped off by branding everything, and the general aggressively unoffensive yet sanitizing way the henry group makes the Fenway experience unfold for their customers).
I'm a little curious to hear why you think it's a joke.
Where do you lift in your home park? The players' lounge??
I imagine there are separate weight rooms in most parks.
And the ballboys too!
Concur. Why would a team want to make its opponents more comfortable?
I certainly wouldn't give them a weight room, batting casge or a video room. Why not keep those advantages to yourself?
It's a perfectly reasonable position with no tinge of fanboyism or semi-trollery to be seen.
I imagine it's primarily a gentleman's agreement. If you provide those things to visitors, then they'll provide them to you. I'm assuming the home facilities at Fenway are at least nearly as bad as the visitor facilities. If there were some great disparity, I would think teams would do a lot of complaining to the league.
That doesn't seem very sporting, but to each his own.
And warm water.
Of course it should be spelled out somewhere in MLB regulations what amenities must be provided by the home team. Because you're not the first unsporting guy around.
eeep!
I've been watching baseball my entire life, and I still can't figure out if I hate the Green Monster.
Exactly. There should be an agreement as to what the visitor gets, and I would supply exactly that.
I don't see it as "unsporting", at least no more "unsporting" than the Red Sox tailoring their team to their home park. The Green Monster and the Pesky pole are much more "unsporting" than not giving a visiting team a batting cage.
And then every other team in baseball would do the same thing to you in return. What do you really gain?
It could be worse, like the Celtics in the old Garden.
I would have thought that position would be untenable for a Yankee fan considering the Little League dimensions at Yankee Stadium.
I have no problem with that. But then does that not allow the opponent to say it IS a dump, for him? Or do you want to make it uncomfortable for him and expect him to STFU about it?
I have no problem with that. But then does that not allow the opponent to say it IS a dump, for him? Or do you want to make it uncomfortable for him and expect him to STFU about it?
Scott or any other player has a perfect right to complain as much as he wants, but the appropriate response to him should be nothing more than an amused chuckle.
Well, if they're cheaper than you are (and most teams are cheaper than the Red Sox) you get a bigger advantage at home than you give away on the road.
While I certainly don't think we should legislate gamesmanship out of baseball, or any other sport, for me personally moments of excess sportsmanship add more to the folklore of sports than moments of excess gamesmanship. The big local one here is a Leicester-Nottingham Forest match where a player collapsed on the field and the game was abandoned. A new one scheduled in a few weeks time. Since the score was 1-0 Forest at the kick off of the brand new game Leicester stood aside and allowed Forest to score a goal before gettin play underway. I've got a bit of a sentimental streak, so different mileages may vary.
Of course as I say, I'm not saying get rid of gamesmanship. You need both sides of the coin. But for me personally, give me the guy who loses naively or honourably over the guy who wins cleverly any day of the week!
As noted above, there may be MLB rules or "understandings" that cover this. Could be covered in collective bargaining agreement with the players, too. Messing around in this area just invites greater scrutiny in the future, so it's probably not worth it even if there might be room to stick it to the opposition in various petty ways.
From the previous CBA:
F. Locker Room Equipment
Each visiting locker room shall be equipped with the following equipment, all in good working order, and of a size and capacity adequate
for the treatment of professional baseball players: whirlpool, hydroculator, ultrasound machine and examining table.
On a side note - there was and is a big drive in the minors for this sort of thing (proper facilities) and teams with better facilities are in big demand for PDCs. Minor league franchises had to spend a lot of money (or find a lot of money to spend) to come up to snuff. I imagine the standards are higher in MLB.
Making visiting players have a horrible experience can't be the best way to get them when they are free agents.
Sure it can! Whenever a player comes to my stadium on a visiting team, he'll be filled with the desire to use the Home locker room, where every player has a private hot tub. The tunnel to the Visitors room will have windows into the lavish weight room they're not allowed to use.
Yeah, I don't think Duffy's Cliff helped Carl Crawford any ...
Overall, I imagine Scott's comments might apply to any entertainment venue that's great for the fans but uncomfortable for the talent. For some reason I thought of Preservation Hall: I have no idea whether musicians enjoy playing there, but I can see where "dump" might apply from their perspective. From that of the audience, dump or not, it's a very cool place to hear music.
Just his pants?
IANAMLBP, but if you don't have a weight room - even for a couple of weeks at a time - why is that such a problem?
Pushups, situps, chair dips, calisthenics... all kinds of exercise possible without a weight room.
And you can always make bodyweight exercise more challenging, no equipment needed - wide or long pushups instead of traditional, for example.
Running, obviously, there's an open field right there.
Even if none of that's appealing, wouldn't the hotels these guys stay at have gyms?
It's not being vindictive if you don't wait for an excuse. It's just being proactively mean!
I believe this was one of the first things Mark Cuban did when he bought the Mavs. He raised the quality of the amenities very high (plush towels, televisions and comfortable locker rooms) for both the home and visiting team so that players would remember how they were treated in Dallas. Back then Dallas was a laughingstock and noone wanted to play there.
Me, I'd try to find out whatever pre-AB routine Manny Mota had, and then do that.
If Mota is unavailable for comment, I'd probably just run in place or do jumping jacks to warm up.
Might look silly, but as Lou Brock put it, "Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy I can beat, every time."
Maybe having the cage available is helpful (any studies on this?)... I was thinking mainly of the lack of a weight-room for player workouts, not so much in-game prep.
Ah, the Manny Ramirez clause.
Agreed.
Haha
Probably closer to the Elijah Dukes clause.
Wusses. Just to stand in a box and swing a stick? The warm-up on the sidelines thing is good enough for soccer players :>
IANAMLBP either, but if you separate me from my weights for more than 4 days, people WILL die.
While I certainly don't think we should legislate gamesmanship out of baseball, or any other sport, for me personally moments of excess sportsmanship add more to the folklore of sports than moments of excess gamesmanship. The big local one here is a Leicester-Nottingham Forest match where a player collapsed on the field and the game was abandoned. A new one scheduled in a few weeks time. Since the score was 1-0 Forest at the kick off of the brand new game Leicester stood aside and allowed Forest to score a goal before gettin play underway. I've got a bit of a sentimental streak, so different mileages may vary.
That wonderful example of sportsmanship is entirely compatible with my idea of gamesmanship.
Roid rage?
I resent that! My rage is entirely natural!
Since neither of them usually bothers to think before he opens his mouth, I think they'd probably appreciate each other's outspokenness.
I laughed.
NATURALLY.
Regarding chair lifts, situps, etc, I've always found that maintaining a routine is almost as important as whatever your routine consists of. So if you're lifting weights at home, you want to lift the same weights on the road.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main